What a glorious drive - hovering low cloud couldn't spoil the majestic snow capped views and all that goes with them ... time went so quickly - just as well as that was the first 5 hours of a 26 hour travelling day ... ah, yeah ... we cross the dateline!

We only spent a couple of days in Arthurs Pass as the hostels there were very expensive and it was way too chilly to camp. Whilst there we did a walk up to a big waterfall and admired the beautiful scenery, particularly the snow capped mountains surrounding the town. The car was all icy when we woke up the following morning, it was strange to fe...

Left Mount Cook on a beautiful sunny morning but drove into a cloud bank locally called a Hogsback because it looks like a waterfall pouring over the mountain range. Experienced our first heavy traffic in New Zealand as we approached Christchurch. Ann and Lynne spoiled us with a lovely lamb dinner complete with lots of vegetables including some ...

SB: Despite our rapid tour of both islands in NZ in under a month, we've tried to keep the long drives to a minimum (although we now have a totally new perception of what a long drive means by the way after hiring vehicles in NZ and Oz). But we couldn't really avoid the long drive to Christchurch from QT to Christchurch (about 7 hours), but did ...

After 52 days on the road, I finally arrived my hometown Christchurch. And thanks to Jan and Mack I got home to my bed safely :)

We realised that we did not have to get up at 5h30 to walk up to the pub to watch teh rugby as New Zealand's channel 3 have bought the rights to the World Cup in New Zealand! So we stayed in our backpackers, and as we were the only ones staying there, we got to watch the game in our bed. We moved the portable TV into our room and cheered and jum...

Made it to Christchurch from Sydney, it was a 3 hour flight. Turned out its actually nice and sunny here, but very very cold. Glad that Clodagh bought me a jacket for my birthday (bit early but needed it), as I would have been struggling. Staying in an alright spot called New Excelsior backpackers in the center of town. Just sorting our trip aro...

Finally made it by plane to Christchurch. It's raining around here as well (apparently it affects most of the South Island) and have managed to secure (or so I think) some work in Alexandra for next week (though there is another option in Ashburton). Hence... I'm leaving Christchurch tomorrow for Te anau which is in Southland or Fiordland. I'm i...

Jonny: We'd intended to spend a day in Christchurch, but the vagaries of bus timetables meant that it became two days. On Thursday we didn't really do much: had a lie-in, went to the visitor centre to look up some local travel details, and wandered back through the central Cathedral Square (we were staying just off one side; the visitor centre (...